For 99% of college football programs in America, winning three games is not a successful season. For Fort Lewis College, it is different. FLC head coach Johnny Cox and his Skyhawks football program should be celebrated for their accomplishments and the team’s future.
Before this season, the Skyhawks had lost 39 consecutive games dating back to 2019. Losses with scores of 82-0, 75-3 or 85-7 were not uncommon. FLC had three head coaches during this losing streak. During this 39-game losing streak, the Skyhawks were within one score of the opponent as time expired only three times. FLC had the longest losing streak in the nation. The average margin of defeat was 38.7 points. Faith in the program and its existence was falling.
A lot of pressure was on the program and Cox (by yours truly) to break that losing streak. After all, Cox was heading into his third season without a single win.
Cox and the Skyhawks did more than win one game. They won three. Two were conference wins. The last win, a 44-22 triumph at home over New Mexico Highlands, wasn’t as close as the final score indicated; it was still the biggest win for FLC since 2016.
So despite a 3-8 record, Cox and FLC’s football program should be applauded for their success this year. Cox should also be applauded for how he’s built the program to achieve this success.
In today’s college athletics, everything has more of a transactional feel to it, with the transfer portal and immediate eligibility from the transfer portal. Athletes can make money off their Name Image and Likeness (NIL). That’s a driving factor at the Division I level and affects the Division II level.
Just this week, top high school basketball player and possible generational talent A.J. Dybantsa committed to BYU. Why did the top high school basketball prospect commit to playing at a college where students must abstain from sexual relations outside of marriage, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, tea and coffee? A main factor is he’s reportedly getting $7 million in NIL to go there for less than a year before the NBA.
So, in the Wild West of college athletics these days, it’s refreshing to see Cox build a program the old-school way with internal development and player retention.
As I wrote in my previous column about Cox before the 2024 season:
“He’s not relying on the transfer portal and searching it like he’s looking for the crumbs at the bottom of the bag like lots of coaches in rebuilding programs. His heart is in the right place, and it seems like he’s trying to build these players on and off the field.”
This is even more true now. His quarterback, redshirt freshman Stone Walker, came in from high school and waited a year before starring this season. FLC’s top running back this season, Orlando Guevara, is a freshman from high school. Top wide receiver Zachary Gaumont is a sophomore who’s been in the program for two years. Top tackler sophomore Jacob Penney has been in the program for two years.
Less than 10% of the 2024 roster transferred into the program from another college. So it’s exciting in today’s landscape to see players grow and start to flourish in one place.
Cox and the Skyhawks are set up to continue to improve. FLC should return its starting quarterback, top three running backs, top five wide receivers and top six tacklers on defense.
FLC will open a new training facility in 2025 after having facilities for years that mirrored a good high school’s facilities. FLC Director of Athletics Travis Whipple continues to his strong fundraising ability that will help the Skyhawks in years to come.
Plus, think of the flip side. Unless you’re evil, who wants to see a legend fail at his alma mater? Cox is an all-time FLC great and still owns the school records in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. It’s a storybook career arc if he can be the one to bring the FLC program out of the ashes of despair into prominence in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and nationally.
Firing coaches who starred for their alma mater is almost always messy and awkward. This would especially be true at FLC, with an athletic department that is cagey about announcing coaching dismissals and is about as transparent with those things as a wood wall.
Cox and the Skyhawks look like they’re heading in the right direction. It’s a great boost to any school when its football team, which usually has the highest earning potential for an athletic department, does well. FLC football and Cox aren’t on the bottom anymore, but time will tell if they will embody the FLC slogans “To the Top” and “Graduating Champions.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com